Wikipedia
The Trial of Jerry Sandusky and the final month’s of Joe Paterno’s life has put Penn State in the national spotlight. The polarizing story of the disgraced former-football assistant and the legendary Head Coach who fell from grace has gone beyond sports media and has become a true American scandal.
Scandals are meant to be polarizing; they call attention to something and the range of opinions goes from here to infinity. This isn’t a story about whether Paterno was innocent or not, but one of hypocrisy and taking advantage of a tragic story to increase ratings and page views.
In the day’s leading up to Paterno’s firing on November 9, the airwaves were flooded with countless journalist’s calling for Paterno’s head. Even before the firing, Paterno’s coverage was more prominent than coverage on Sandusky himself. As a member of the media it makes sense, you go with the prominent name.
Let’s take ESPN for example, the sports giant ran Paterno coverage continuously the night of his firing and plenty we’re outspoken about their negative opinions on Paterno.
In a November 10, 2011 article, ESPN columnist Ian O’Connor wrote a scathing piece on Paterno, stating that “[Paterno] needed to be humiliated.”
In a November 23, 2011 article, ESPN columnist Jemele Hill compared Joe Paterno to Michael Vick following the news of the quarterback’s dog-fighting scandal.
After Paterno was fired, ESPN ran countless anti-Paterno stories on the home page of ESPN.com.
Weeks went by and the scandal coverage decreases over time, but when Paterno fell into critical condition due to his battle with lung cancer, you can already see journalists taking a complete 180 when it came to their opinion of Paterno.
Following his death on January 22, ESPN ran even more memorial columns and countless “positive” articles. People began to forgive and forget and the blame shifted away from Paterno.
This isn’t an issue with individual journalists, but the flip-flopping of network opinions and the talking heads whose manufactured opinions are nothing but BS created to sell ads.
Death doesn’t make you a hero, but the idea that it does can make you plenty of money. Credibility is unique in today’s world, and certain outlets have proven that they are nothing more than media machines telling readers what they want to hear.
It’ll be a sad day when the world runs out of journalists, and all we’re stuck with are tabloid reporters.
